[Bug 314904] [NEW] PPD fails to parse - "Unable to load a valid driver for printer"

[Luke Plant]

Public bug reported:

I have installed a number of printers on my machine using Kubuntu 8.04.
The most recent is a HP F4200 series (and this is the only one currently
connected, though the other printers are still listed in KDE/CUPS lists
of printers).  This last one required a newer version of hplip, so I
removed the Ubuntu version (2.8.2) and installed 2.8.9 from a tarball.

They all worked fine until recently, but a bug has recently occurred in
all KDE interfaces for configuring one printer.  There must have been
some KDE update in hardy-updates that has changed this, as I haven't
changed anything else. (Also, other CUPS interfaces all work fine,
including the web configurator and printing from GNOME/GTK apps).

If I try to print any document with a KDE program, and select the HP
F4200 printer and choose 'Properties', the 'Driver Settings' tab is
missing.  (If I subsequently select any of the other printers, they are
also missing the 'Driver Settings' tab, but if I close the KDE dialog
and try the other printers first, they all work).

Trying to diagnose this in the Printers section in the KDE control
panel:

If I choose "Configure" from the context menu of the F4200 printer, I
get this message:

Unable to load a valid driver for printer Deskjet_F4200. Error message received from manager:
/tmp/4965393179517(line 40): syntax error, unexpected ':'

If I try again, I get a different syntax error, e.g. (line 2) syntax
error, unexpected QUOTED

Similarly to with the KDE print dialog, if I *subsequently* try to
'Configure' one of the other printer drivers, I get a "syntax error"
message.  But if I close the control panel and re-open it, and try one
of the other printers first, I can configure them fine.

So, the problem seems to be that the PPD is failing to parse, and *also*
that it is somehow stateful -- you get different error messages each
time, and one thing failing causes subsequent failures.

The failing PPD file is attached, but I don't know if this is really the
problem.

I can still print with this printer fine, it is just that the 'Driver
settings' tab is not available, and I cannot set the defaults using the
KDE printers control panel.

Current package version for kdeprint: 4:3.5.10-0ubuntu1~hardy2

** Affects: kdebase (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New


** Tags: kubuntu regression

-- 
PPD fails to parse - "Unable to load a valid driver for printer"
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/314904
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